How To Negotiate a Raise With Your Optometry Employer

Here is a short snippet of the Free Ebook – The Simple Guide to Jobs After Optometry School

So you’ve looked for jobs, got your resume together, interviewed, selected your favorite practice but now its time to negotiate a raise.

Yet sometimes things aren’t that clean cut. Both practices I was employed at have no definitive call that said “Congratulations Matt, you’re hired!” Because these practices weren’t interviewing many candidates, it was more of a mutual understanding and slow discussion that lead to a “soft yes”.

So with that being the case, there is a good chance that you will need to iron out a few small details prior to fully accepting the position.

Here are important details to pay attention to!

Salary

Benefits

Performance plan / Bonuses – how this will be tracked

Clinical care modality

Duties outside of clinical care

Contracting

This is your opportunity to let your value dominate and negotiate the type of contract you desire.

Most likely, your clinical care modality and hours are set in stone. The smaller, mom-and-pop style practices will have lots of flexibility here, while larger institutions will have only one pathway towards how you will practice. Find out up front, the offer on the table for salary and benefits. Is it fair and is it the market rate? One way to find out is ask local colleagues and classmates where they are at in terms of compensation, what did they negotiate?

In the event that your compensation offering is lower than you want, you have 2 options. Leave it how it is, or negotiate it immediately.

If you negotiate immediately this will make things much cleaner and palatable for the employer because contractually, it’s not yet set in stone. You can always negotiate it as a raise down the line, but this is more difficult.

In the event that you want to negotiate either an increase in compensation or benefits, whether you do so before you land the job, or say 6 months into employment, it’s always important to understand this fundamental concept. Compensation is tied to value. This is like one of the laws of physics.

Remember! Compensation is tied to value!

If you can’t bring value, that is measurable, trackable and directly associated to you, then why should you be paid more? I don’t think you should and neither will your employer.

It’s a two way street.

You provide value to help the business generate more money. The business provides you with more money in exchange for the value you provide.

When healthcare providers ask me how to negotiate a raise, I always ask them why they want a raise. Maybe 10% of the time I hear an answer that I would personally give a raise for.

Here are the wrong reasons for wanting to negotiate a raise

I’ve been there a while

I work hard

I’m a great employee

I want to grow

I can’t afford living in this city

…or some other reasons similar

Notice how none of these address this as a 2-way street? This is focused on one party, the employee. Why should the employer pay you more? What did you do above baseline to earn it?

As far as I am concerned, if you are fulfilling your basic job duties, you don’t deserve a dime more than what was agreed. But here are some reasons employers would be happy to give a raise for.

To continue reading and to see the list of the RIGHT reasons for asking for a raise, just download the free ebook here!

About Matt Geller

Dr. Matt Geller is a technology entrepreneur with a track record of developing successful online platforms to solve problems in the healthcare space. Matt is an optometrist in San Diego and is the founder of OptometryStudents.com, NewGradOptometry.com and the co-founder of CovalentCareers.com!